Breathe Symphonies: Just What You Think It Is

By: TriplePirouette/3Pirouette

Category: AU

Spoilers: through 1.12

Disclaimer: They're not mine.

Word Count: 2182

Distribution: my , LJ, and my AO3. Anyone else please ask first :)

Summary: August gathers points of view on the most talked about couple in Storybrooke: the Golds.

AN: Prompted by thestraggletag "I want to see them shocking the people Storybrooke by flaunting their obvious passion while everyone tries to see their marriage as arranged" Well, yup. This is what came out. :)

AN 2-I almost scrapped this after The Return because when I started this it was August-is-Bae, but I decided not to. It almost doesn't matter who August is for this to work, so there you go. I've also decided this will be canon compliant- so August is who he's been revealed as. :) I have been working on this forever- I'm not completely happy with it, but if I don't put it out there, I will keep trying to fix it until it dies a horrible death. HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY IT!

AN3: Stories are written in random order to give them the same feel we get from OUAT's patchwork back story reveals. They are meant to be read in the order that they're posted.

However, if you're like me, you may want some better understanding.
The chronological order to the story so far (if you're so inclined...)

1. I Will Not Kiss You (Fairy Tale Land section)
2. The Price Of Magic
3. Morning Breaks
4. Evening Sets
5. Weather Patterns
6. Sweet Catastrophe
7. A Dash of Lemon
8. Baby's Breath
9. Summer Sun
10. I Will Not Kiss You (Storybrooke section)
11. Just What You Think it Is
12. Hope In Me
13. What You Will Miss The Most

One thing that August W. Boothe came to find out very quickly was that everyone in Storybrooke knew about the Golds. It didn't matter who he talked to or what he talked to them about, if he talked to anyone long enough, gossip would eventually take over and go right to the couple that seemed to be on everyone's minds.

It was readily apparent that Mr. Gold was a man the people of the town did not what to cross. He was small but stately, knowledgeable and sly. People bought antiques from him if they wanted exceptional quality, and pawned or got loans only if they were sure they could pay him back.

Unless someone was desperate. The desperate turned to Mr. Gold when nothing was left. The man made miracles happen- but always for a price. No one ever elaborated on that little line to August, but he heard it enough to know that there was some form of deep truth to it.

Every person in town knew enough to be afraid of Mr. Gold and they always seemed eager to warn August off as well. After hearing these things, it was always with confusion that August watched the young and beautiful Jolie Gold saunter around with her husband. He had figured out that Gold was the infamous Rumpelstiltskin fairly quickly. The descriptions from the people in Storybrooke were not unlike the tales he heard as a small child from his father. But he had never known that Rumpelstiltskin had a wife- or even one who loved him so dearly. If there was a woman in his life, it never quite made it into the stories told about him, at least none that August had heard.)

Jolie was warm and sweet; a breath of fresh air on a stale day- always able to offer a smile or share in a laugh. She was always involved in volunteering or in charity drives, and no one in town seemed to have any reservations about going right up to her and talking to her.

They were a pair that just didn't quite seem to fit, and that intrigued August. Asked about one or the other, the people of Storybrooke could go on for days. Gold's cruelty, Jolie's kindness, Gold's irritability, Jolie's patience. (Intriguingly, he also noticed that no one could quite be all that sure as to what Mr. Gold's first name was. He hadn't found anything written with the man's full name, and the people that he spoke to just looked at him as if he were crazy if he asked about the man's given name.) The list of contradicting personality traits went on and on, but for a storyteller like himself, August found the really interesting stories to be the ones about why they were together.

The old woman on Shoe Street was very vocal on her unkind opinion of Belle. More than once Granny had tossed her out of the diner for calling Jolie a 'gold-digging whore' just a little too loudly. August found that she didn't have any evidence other than hateful words and bible verses to back up her claims, but her opinion was shared by several women in her knitting group.

The blonde with the pixie cut who ran the hardware store liked to circulate the rumor that the marriage had been arranged by none other than Moe French as payment for his debts. August tried to track down Moe at his flower shop, but found him to be both elusive and reclusive. The one day he did finally corner Mr. French, August could not get him to speak of his daughter at all. (which he found to be a shame. Not only had he hoped to confirm or dispel the rumor, but he was hoping to get a few more clues as to who Gold's mysterious wife really was in their old land.) He did walk away with a lovely arrangement of daffodils, though.

Ruby's opinion, however, was the favorite of the female patrons of the diner and though he found the women would ponder it for hours, it relied entirely on one simple sentence: "He must be damn good in bed." August has to turn away from Ruby's leer, and tried not to bring up the Golds with her again.

He's stunned, though, to find that mostly people believe these silly rumors about arranged marriages, payment for debts, and Jolie being a gold-digging hussy. No matter which opinion they held, there was one thing that everyone in Storybrooke knew: The Librarian and The Pawn Broker couldn't keep their hands off one another.

It's the thing that gives Ruby's theory any evidence at all, but that also baffles him even more. If the tales of his childhood are to be believed, Rumpelstiltskin is a cruel man with no love in his heart. But even he can see that for all the rumors, Mr. Gold truly loves his wife. When his conversations start to turn to rumors of the Golds (as they all eventually do) he starts to steer them slightly sideways, away from rumors and towards stories. And what a gold mine he finds in the stories.

He finds that Granny tells the sweetest stories of the pair. She loves how he kisses Jolie's knuckles when they part, the way she's often seen Gold drape his coat over his wife's shoulders when it's unexpectedly cold or the ever-present rain drizzles in without warning. Granny paints the softest picture of the hardened man and his lover: two people so very much in love, sitting on the same side of a booth, her whispering in his ear, his hand resting on her knee. The matron of the diner details soft smiles, hearty laughter, and stolen french fries.

Ruby, for all her time in the same diner, only has one story. "It was empty except for the two of them. I'm pretty sure she gave him a hand job under the table." Recounting that story always earns her a good smack upside her head from her Granny if she's in earshot, but Ruby keeps telling it anyway.

Mary Margaret blushes when she recounts for him the time she saw Mr. Gold in the library. August could almost see the scene play before his eyes from the way she told it:

Mary Margaret had ventured to the second floor, all the way back into the last rows when she heard the soft murmuring. "Hello?" she called out. A moment later Gold limped from between the last two aisles, smiling.

He dipped his head in greeting as he passed. "Mary Margaret."

Um is your... Jolie up here?" She stuttered out, always put off balance by Gold.

He smirked, a secret lurking behind his eyes. "Last row, can't miss her."

"Thank you," she called as he continued past her and she stepped toward the back of the library. She turned and ran headfirst into Jolie. The two bounced off one another, something fluttering to the floor from Jolie's hand.

Mary Margaret looked down then quickly back up again as Jolie crouched with a blush to retrieve the panties that had slipped from her fingers. She hid her hand behind her back as she spoke. "Mary Margaret, I uh..."

"European History!" Mary Margaret blurted out, "I need a book with the full text of the Magna Carta..." She couldn't quite keep her fingers still or her eyes on the woman's face.

Jolie smiled and gestured with her head, despite the fierce blush that was rising over her chest and up her cheeks. "Two aisles over on the right side, there are a few reference books that should have what you need. Third shelf if I remember correctly."

Mary Margaret smiled gratefully, happy to be moving in the opposite direction. She turned back, her voice a whisper. "Oh, and your blouse is inside out."

August found that Emma doesn't so much have a story as an impression. She has never, never seen two people kiss so passionately. Not one kiss, be it lips to lips or lips to skin, was wasted or tossed away without meaning. No empty gestures of kisses on cheeks or perfunctory pecks for show. She marveled at the way they expressed how they felt with every touch and every kiss. They're like death row inmates who were savoring every last second on this earth with one another.

Sydney Glass, when drunk, was only to happy to recount a day when he and Regina stumbled on them making out like horny teenagers in Gold's car, Jolie straddled over his lap and his shirt half off.

His favorite part of the story was how Gold didn't miss a beat when Regina rapped on the window, a lecture on her lips. While Jolie blushed and hid her laughter in her lover's chest, Gold smiled and baited the Mayor with a mouthful of banter and challenges, finally making her leave with an overly polite "please" that still baffles Sydney to this day. (The exact conversation changes every time Sydney tells the story, but the gist is always the same. The details also seem to depend on the spirits he's imbibing. Scotch tends to make Gold meaner, whereas beer makes the whole thing a lot funnier.)

No matter how drunk he would get, Sydney always insisted the Golds intended Regina to catch them. (And he always adds in that they were parked there for quite a while after Regina left.)

Archie told a sweet story about a day he stopped in the Pawn Shop looking for a gift. They were at the counter, Gold standing, Jolie sitting on it. They faced each other, soft smiles on their faces as Gold held a cupcake up to his wife's lips. She bit into it carefully but couldn't avoid getting a blob of icing on the tip of her nose. He swiped it with his finger before slipping it in his mouth. Archie always ends up stuttering a bit and blushing when he tells this story, even though all parties involved are quite innocent in their moment, especially compared to some of the other stories he's heard.

But of all the stories, Henry's was the best. (It was also the one that made August connect all the dots: the books, the sweet nature, the name she came through with... he felt quite dumb for not realizing it earlier.) Only a few people heard Henry's tale, but everyone who did somehow knew there was a ring of truth to the boy's words, even if they didn't believe it could be real.

"He's the beast, she's the beauty. In their world, she could never kiss him- it would break the curse, but also take away all of his magic. He couldn't let that happen because his magic was the only magic strong enough to fight the Evil Queen. But now, in this world, they're just regular people, so they can kiss whenever they want. So they do, 'cause they didn't get to for so long and it's True Love." Henry rambles on to August about all the characters in his book, happy to have someone who will listen, and August just smiles at his enthusiasm, wondering if they boy will ever mention his tale.

After only a few weeks, August found that literally everyone in Storybrooke knows about the Golds: the hardened man who owned the town and the breath of fresh air who tamed his heart. The writer in August sees the beautiful love story. He sees the potential for emotional happy endings and soul crushing tragedy. Through the gossip he sees two people who are talked about simply because though they're not opposed to public displays of affection, their true history was a well shrouded secret. No one really knew their story in this world- the Pawn Broker and the Librarian are far too private to have any of their personal truths become part of the rumor mill. (Every once in a while, however, August catches Gold watching people gossip and he sees a glint in the former Imp's eye. August thinks, perhaps, he likes fueling the fires of rumors with outrages speculation.)

No one quite understands the real reasons behind why she married him, or why her father allowed it. (No one seems to question what he would see in her; that any man in town would jump at a chance with Jolie Gold is seemingly just fact. August's never once come across a rumor about why Gold would stoop to marry a florist's daughter.) What people do know is that they've never seen two people more in love, or two people more willing to show it.

August slowly stops asking, but he still hears the stories and rumors anyway. He writes down the most interesting ones for safe keeping and keeps his eye on the pair that is the talk of the town.

Soon, he'll have to find out more than just rumors and love stories. Soon, he'll need to know if they remember.